I've charged into fires, fought through blizzards and run from tornados

I've survived being hunted by gangs, killers and contract killers

The streets were my home, I hunted in the night and was hunted in turn

Please don't brag to me that you're a survivor because someone hit you. And don't tell me how 'tough' you are because of your training. As much as I've been through I know people who have survived much, much worse. - Marc MacYoung

WARNING, CAVEAT AND NOTE

The postings on this blog are my interpretation of readings, studies and experiences therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. The content surrounding the extracts of books, see bibliography on this blog site, are also mine and mine alone therefore errors and omissions are also mine and mine alone and therefore why I highly recommended one read, study, research and fact find the material for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter. See the bibliography for information on the books. Please make note that this article/post is my personal analysis of the subject and the information used was chosen or picked by me. It is not an analysis piece because it lacks complete and comprehensive research, it was not adequately and completely investigated and it is not balanced, i.e., it is my personal view without the views of others including subject experts, etc. Look at this as “Infotainment rather then expert research.” This is an opinion/editorial article/post meant to persuade the reader to think, decide and accept or reject my premise. It is an attempt to cause change or reinforce attitudes, beliefs and values as they apply to martial arts and/or self-defense. It is merely a commentary on the subject in the particular article presented.

Note: I will endevor to provide a bibliography and italicize any direct quotes from the materials I use for this blog. If there are mistakes, errors, and/or omissions, I take full responsibility for them as they are mine and mine alone. If you find any mistakes, errors, and/or omissions please comment and let me know along with the correct information and/or sources.

“What you are reading right now is a blog. It’s written and posted by me, because I want to. I get no financial remuneration for writing it. I don’t have to meet anyone’s criteria in order to post it. Not only I don’t have an employer or publisher, but I’m not even constrained by having to please an audience. If people won’t like it, they won’t read it, but I won’t lose anything by it. Provided I don’t break any laws (libel, incitement to violence, etc.), I can post whatever I want. This means that I can write openly and honestly, however controversial my opinions may be. It also means that I could write total bullshit; there is no quality control. I could be biased. I could be insane. I could be trolling. … not all sources are equivalent, and all sources have their pros and cons. These needs to be taken into account when evaluating information, and all information should be evaluated.” - God’s Bastard, Sourcing Sources

“You should prepare yourself to dedicate at least five or six years to your training and practice to understand the philosophy and physiokinetics of martial arts and karate so that you can understand the true spirit of everything and dedicate your mind, body and spirit to the discipline of the art.” - cejames

“All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.” - Montaigne

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Creating Bunkai

First, each system, style and branch of karate has its fundamental bunkai. This bunkai is unique according the the creator of the system, style or branch. It comes from a combination of combat experience passed down to succeeding generations and usually evolves into a personal unique fundamental bunkai of the individual practitioner.

In this bunkai may not be exact as it was originally intended - traditionally/classically. This is good. Bunkai in kata are the blueprints of combat and the best means of conveying such things especially in today's cultural societal times - relatively peaceful.

We can create bunkai ... BUT, should we. In most cases in today's karate world and relative to karate as budo we don't actually create bunkai. We will take the bunkai that is passed down to us and create a variant that works for the individual. A simplistic example or explanation but that is all we should do.

There are criteria for bunkai, simplicity and natural. Bunkai must be efficient and fit well within the fundamental principles of martial systems. They should follow closely natural movements and connect to the natural instinctual moves the body is already encoded with for survival. Training and modify what the brain draws on and this closeness to natural instinctual physical movement is critical to "make it work" in an adrenaline flood of chemicals hell bent on turning you into a drooling curled up baby hoping to survive.

Their simplicity should enhance and shorten the learning process. The bunkai then can be used to continually support and strengthen that encoding so it will always be fresh and available to the lizard brain when things go hinkey.

Bunkai that are complicated are not bunkai but merely a tool of interest to keep paying customers interested and coming to the training hall. Karate as budo is not meant to be a sport and complicated instant gratification type teachings are not conducive to karate as budo for fighting, defense, protection or combat scenario's.

The question then arises in western martial arts, is bunkai necessary? In most cases it is not necessary because our western culture tends to label karate as sport, not budo. As a sport the combative aspects conveyed by bunkai for that purpose are not allowed in the sport arena. Even when you label it a combat sport it is not a budo or combative in reality or real world violent encounters of predatory nature. This point can be argued until the cows come home but in my view it is factually accurate in a more traditional/classical aspect of conflict.

Creating bunkai for the "test" is also a waste of time. Bunkai should never be "created" to test one for a black belt of any level. Testing or evaluating the application of bunkai learned as one progresses is absolutely a good thing but creating for a test is a waste of time. First, it impresses only the uninitiated. Second, it is always a tool used to build up a quantity that impresses the uninitiated or ignorant they are actually "doing something useful or cool." Third, they created bunkai after testing is always forgotten and therefore serve no useful purpose in karate as budo, i.e. karate goshin-do.

In closing, bunkai and kata as in martial arts is misunderstood in the west and it can only be truly understood by looking to the cultural belief systems of the past and present of the origins - Okinawa, China and Japan culture and beliefs that influenced karate as budo, i.e. karate goshin-do.

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Doing Good

“What matters is things are the way they are right now, in this moment. We are all in a position where, if we move carefully, if we think through and plan accordingly, we can make it better. No regrets. No wishing we can undo the past. We just look to the now for the future and work our butts off toward that goal.” - Unknown

Lives Matter

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)

" ... sooner or later you're going to realize, just as I did, that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." - Morpheus

"Its not the system directly that is important in karate, but the person using the system that makes it (in)effective." - Mario McKenna Sensei

Harry Frankfurt wrote, "Becoming wholehearted, a state not unlike stoic resoluteness," is to eliminate conflicts in which one physical process interferes with others and undermines equilibrium in which health consists." - The Stoic Warrior author.

Self defense is about awareness, avoidance and preparation just as much as using weapons." - Wim Demeere

If your monkey/tribal brain is working your human/thinking brain is not.

If you are feeling emotion, you are not thinking; that part of your brain is turned off.

If it is about who did or said it and not what was said, you are in your tribal brain.

If you label anyone, it is a tactic to put that person in another tribe specifically so that you don't have to listen to the content.

People who disagree with you are rarely stupid. If you cannot effectively, compassionately and convincingly argue the other side's point of view, you are the one in your tribal brain. You are the stupid one.

Every effort is being made to make this blog site as accurate as possible. However, there may be mistakes, both typographical and in content. Therefore, this blog should be used only as a general guide and not the ultimate source of practicing and training in the fighting arts. Furthermore, this blog site contains information on the fighting arts that is current only up to the publishing date and time.

The purpose of this blog site is to educate and entertain. The author shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused , directly or indirectly, by the information contained in this blog site.

When it comes to martial arts, fighting arts or self-defense, etc. nothing here no matter how well presented, can substitute for qualified professional, hands on instruction provided that instructor is properly educated and trained. This blog site and all its materials are for academic study ONLY.

If you do not wish to be bound by the above, you may navigate away from the site at any time.

Guess What, nothing special.

I was a student of some guy named “Henry,” and he taught me Isshinryu while we were stationed on Okinawa. I taught at Camp Hansen, Okinawa; then in Gushikawa, Okinawa; then Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; then in Martinez, California; then in Concord, California; and then I retired from teaching in a dojo. I trained and practiced for a period in Berkeley, California and now I study, train, practice, philosophize and analyze and hypothesize and synthesize my martial disciplines leading to my articles on blogger.

I trained with and around a few proficient and knowledgable martial artists or karate-ka or just really good people. I don’t have a list of legendary teachers even in seminar settings (Oh, Holebecki Sensei did do a short seminar at Berkeley once, about an hour and a half). I am experienced in many ways that in truth should mean absolutely nothing to you.

The only civilian dojo was in my garage while the other was under the auspice of the Civil Service Recreation group where I worked until I retired from my real job in 1999.

My studies both sporadic and full time dedicated span from the age of 17 years to my present age at sixty-three years (2017).

I focused on an Okinawan Karate system, fairly new one circa 1954 or so, starting in 1976 so over all I have studied, practiced, trained, taught a handful of truly dedicated karate-ka, and made it an intricate part of my life in and out of a dojo for around forty-five years or so.

I am a Marine, active from 1972 to 1981 and now on inactive status. I am retired from civil service: a Physical Security Specialist/Officer; a Container Repair Mechanic; a Materials Expediter; a Communications Security Manager; a Special Weapons Mechanic/Technician; a Radiation Control Technician; a Computer Tech Support Specialist; a Computer Security Specialist; a fledgling Coder of PL-SQL; a Computer Systems Administrator; a Enterprise Application Systems Administrator; a Release Management Analyst and a few other duties as assigned over my years in service. All the while teaching, training, and practicing various disciplines in the proverbial martial arts communities.

My latest endeavor is playing and competing in the ‘Dart Arts’. As the old cartoon would say at the end of the show, “Thathathats All Folks!”